Timekeeping requirements

Timekeeping requirements are the record-keeping duties the Fair Labor Standards Act places on employers: for every non-exempt employee, keep accurate records of hours worked each day and week, wages paid, and the basic facts of the employment. The employer — not the employee — owns this duty, and in a wage dispute, missing records are held against the business.

How it works in the United States

The FLSA's record rules are method-neutral and surprisingly practical:

• Any accurate method is fine: paper timesheets, punch clocks, or an app — the law cares about accuracy, not technology.
• What to record: identifying details, the workweek, hours worked each day and total each week, the basis of pay, regular rate, overtime earnings, deductions, and pay dates.
• How long to keep it: payroll records for at least three years; the time cards and schedules the calculations rest on for at least two.
• Rounding is permitted but constrained: see the 7-minute rule — rounding must not consistently favor the employer.

State law often adds more: meal-break recording, employee access to their own records, longer retention. And under Fair Workweek ordinances, schedule records join the list. The theme is constant — if work happened, there should be a trustworthy record of it.

FLSA, 29 U.S.C. § 211(c) and 29 C.F.R. Part 516 — enforced by the US DOL Wage and Hour Division; state laws may require more detail and longer retention.

Related terms

• The 7-minute rule
• Overtime pay
• Pay stub
• FLSA